Skywatch Friday – YMCA Sunset

YMCA Skywatch Sunset Impressions Cezanne II 58 pct

I used Topaz Impressions software on this to give it kind of an impressionistic effect and then dialed it back about 40%. I also cropped out some annoying features.

We are having some colorful skies lately here in Tulsa. I liked how the color was shining through the windows of the old downtown YMCA. A developer demo’d the interior and has the project on hold pending higher oil prices probably. I also like the reflections on the building on the left, the old Amerada Hess Petroleum building. They bugged out for Houston back in the 90’s during another oil downturn, and insurance company occupies the structure now.

Will the last person in Tulsa please turn out the lights?

I’ve been told by numerous people that the energy companies manipulate the prices of oil, natural gas, and gasoline. That may be, if so they are doing a really poor job of it. What do you think.

In the meantime I’ll be enjoying the sunsets.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday!

Lakeside Tree

These trees are in the town of Clinton of Custer County in western Oklahoma. If you’ve ever been to Custer County you might think that trees are so few that might be illegal. The land is dominating by large expanses of wheat and grazing land and there are no forests. Trees are confined to draws and gullys and in parks along lakes and such. So sometimes fence rows. So when you find a big expansive tree like this you take notice.

I’m linking with NF: Trees N Bushes

Our World Tuesday – Checking Out Chandler Park

Sunday I decided to explore a new area with Logan. It is the land west west of Chandler Park is far northwest Tulsa. I was inspired by the facebook posts of TrailZombie Ken who is my guide pretty much for anything having to do with trails and trailrunning in Oklahoma.

We start out at the very southwest end of Chandler Park and cross the gate and head down the road. The first thing you run into is this sign. This is the Compass Industries Landfill EPA Superfund Site. A gazillion dollars was spent cleaning up “…620,000 cubic yards of solid, liquid and sludge wastes, including acids, caustics, solvents and potentially carcinogenic materials” in a former limestone quarry. The cleanup was paid for by the polluters themselves but all that stopped in 1995 and now we taxpayers get to pay for cleanups. I guess because it is unfair to ask the polluters to pay the expenses. It might cut into their campaign contributions budget or something.

We go a little further and we find the that the fence has been breached in a major way. I wonder what kind of morons trespass out there on a regular basis?

Shortly thereafter the trail gets away from the site and continues on west. We only saw one other person during our outing. Turkey Mountain is great but on nice weekends some of the main trails get crowded and Logan doesn’t like the constant bikers coming up behind us. No traffic problems at Chandler Park, yet.

And then it got a little rocky and I spent 40 fruitless minutes looking for a geocache and we continued our trek until the trail looped around to Avery drive.

We took a little break and then decided to head back on a different route.

If it looks steep, it is.

Just ask Logan, he’ll tell you.

We got into some of rock formations that make Chandler popular with the local bouldering and climbing enthusiasts. We are not into any of that.

Logan took a picture of the old man in full nerd regalia standing on a rock.

So it was a nice easy out and back introduction. I can see when daylight savings time returns that I’ll be coming out here some to do my Wednesday night runs. The area is lots bigger than Turkey Mountain but literally about 1% as many people. I’ll be learning the trails and looking forward to it.

Timely column today in the Tulsa World: Do we even need Chandler Park? I say yes!!

Have you been anywhere new lately?

Linking with Our World Tuesday

Who is my Valentine?

This is my version played out on Picmonkey of the old scissors, glue, paste, and lace valentines I made in grade school back in the 60’s.

Hey, just in case there are few people who don’t know who my Valentine is. That is about the beamiest smile anybody is going to get from me. I’m one lucky guy.

Happy Valentines Day to you!!

Clinton, Oklahoma’s Acme Brick Park

My wife has family in western Oklahoma in the oilfield and farming town of Clinton. Clinton is right on I40 and Route 66 runs right through it and so it is town with a lot going on. My favorite part of Clinton are my wife’s family who are very friendly, open, and hospitable. My favorite place to hang out is a city park called Acme Brick Park. They have a recreation center, a small train, walking paths, lakes, and baseball fields and gets a lot of use and that is all great and anything but my favorite part of the park is the old brick building,now, the recreation center.

The building’s south side gets great sun and I just love the photographs. I know that I overdo them on Instagram but I can’t help it. Maybe it is the combination of the green roof and the red brick, I don’t know.

What about you, do you have something you photograph maybe way too much?

The Homeless Guy said “Not Everybody Can Carry That Look Off”

Wednesday night I was at my liquor store downtown waiting in line to buy some craft beer as a reward for the run I was about to do. The guy ahead of me in line had a bottle of vodka in one hand and a ten dollar bill in the other. He was a homeless guy that I have seen in and around downtown for years. He turned to me and said, “You know you look just like those guys in the old time photographs. That cap and a sportcoat and khaki slacks. You know not everybody can carry that look off but you can.” So I said thank you very much. He asked, “So what kind of cap is that?” and I said that it was called flat cap and a friend from Uruguay got it for me and I love it because it was pretty darn warm.”

So he said “Really” and asked to look at it and so I handed it to him and he said, “No wonder it is warm, it is wool felt.” And I said, “sure is” and he handed it back to me and turned his attention to the clerk as it was his turn.

In a genial manner he told the clerk “Hey, that woman working here this morning said that I can only buy something once a day from you guys.” The clerk said, “That’s right sir we aren’t allowed to sell to the same person twice in a day.” So my new friend said, “Well you know that makes it kind of hard on me because I go through two of these a day” as he held up the bottle, “and I don’t want to be carrying one around all day. You know what I mean?” The clerk said, “I am sorry about that sir.”

And then the clerk said, “You want this in your backpack sir?” and the my guy said “Sure lets put it in there” and while they are doing that he says, “I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet. My daughter, I haven’t seen her in 17 years is flying in and said she is going to find me and I don’t know whether I should meet her or just go get drunk. What do you think?” The clerk said “I think you should go meet your daughter.” And I said, “I vote for that plan.”

The guy laughed and said, “Well we’ll see what happens, you guys take care.” And off he went out of the store.

For some strange reason, the guy made me feel good and bad at the same time. I have not met very many people so open, direct, and non-defensive as this guy.

Have you ever had a homeless guy make you feel good about yourself?

Skywatch Friday – Arkansas River Sunset

I know that I’m being a little repetitive and I apologize in advance. At about 5:30 these days at work I peak outside and if it looks like their might be a good sunset then I take the elevator up to my old floor where there is a clear view out to the west and go to my old office and take a few pics. One day somebody is going to be in my old office and I’m just going to have to tell them to get out of the way I have to take a photograph.

It is getting warmer here in Oklahoma. On my run after work I was able to wear shorts and a long sleeved tee shirt instead of the running pants and layers of cold weather technical gear. In the depths of winter I’m warm but my goodness it is a laundry load. It will get cold again for sure but the trend is my friend as they say. I’m looking forward to the beginning of daylight savings time so I can back to run on Turkey Mountain on Wednesday nights.

So are you looking forward to the change of seasons?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

The Chapel at Fort Reno

Fort Reno has a chapel built by German Prisoners of War in 1944. It is a solid concrete structure with a basement. I don’t think any church services are held there but you can rent it for a wedding for a mere $500. There are some by gum federal government paperwork to get the required permits out so if you are going to rent it, start early. And if you are going to toast the bride and groom with anything stronger than ginger ale, don’t do it here.

So I couldn’t find out who designed it or if they just told the prisoners to go build it or just what but it has a definite German feeling on the outside and a kind of Western/German vibe on the interior. You can check out 9 On Main for the best interior design ideas.

The windows are a translucent yellow and the walls and ceiling are pine and so the interior is very yellow, subdued and kind of pleasant. It is simple yet gets the job done.

I loved the ceiling joists, and the chandeliers, they show a definite sense of style.

Downstairs is a fully equipped kitchen and a big dining room. Just saying if you were wanting to have a wedding and reception with an old west military flair this would be just the place.

Ghosts of Fort Reno

The Fort Reno Visitor Center. The nicest vintage building in the fort. Formerly it was Officer’s Quarters built in 1936.

The trees of the Fort tell the history with the wind whistling through them. they have been through broiling hot summers, freezing winters, drought, ice storms, and tornadoes. The ones that survive are ugly but tough. I think there are ghosts here, ghosts of soldiers, their families, and over 1300 prisoners of war. The ghost of Amelia Earhart is here, she flew here. Will Rogers used to visit because of the polo matches, Frederic Remington spent time here making drawings of the Soldiers and Native Americans.

These two trees with their parallel lean look like they are dancing.

The guardhouse. It doesn’t look like a good place to go for a timeout.

The Commissary a long rambling building. I love the brick, the windows and the arches over the windows.

The cemetery has a few soldiers, lots of children and few wives. I think life was hard out here.

If you are of such a mind to believe in ghosts there is a ghost tour monthly starting in March. Check it out. My ghosts are in my imagination thinking about all the people that came through the Fort over the years.

Our World – Oklahoma’s Historic Fort Reno

Officer’s Quarters

Fort Reno is located about a half hour west of Oklahoma City just off Interstate 40. I have been driving past it off and on for about 30 years and always wanted to go see it but you know I was always busy and in a hurry. Superbowl Sunday I said what the heck I’m stopping. Son Logan was with me and he didn’t really care as long as it was not geocaching. He hates doing that.

Cavalry Barracks

So I checked it out. Fort Reno was established by the US Army in 1875 to help control the Native American’s in the area during the Indian Wars. The post was abandoned in 1907 but stayed in service for the Army as a Remount Facility for horse breeding until 1949. The Fort has a bunch of old buildings and I’ll be making several more posts of my visit there in the coming weeks.

Close by is the Fort Cemetery. I found this grave of Corporal Pat Lynch who died in the Battle of Turkey Springs in 1878. That battle was the last fight in then “Indian Territory” now Oklahoma between the US Cavalry and the Native Americans. Guess what, the Native Americans won. Check out the details here. Better than any movie is what I think. The Northern Cheyenne were trying to get back to their lands in Montana and fought the US Cavalry all through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska during their flight. It didn’t end well.

Fort Reno was a prisoner of war camp during World War II and the Fort Cemetery has many graves of German soldiers. Most of them died in other prison camps and were interred there and then reinterred at Fort Reno after the war. The man above is the most famous German POW buried at Fort Reno. He was held at another POW camp in Oklahoma, the Tonkawa Camp. While there he was accused by some hard core Nazi prisoners of being an informer and was beaten to death. The five who killed him were tried and convicted by the US Army for murder and then were executed by hanging at a makeshift gallows in an elevator shaft of a grain elevator at Fort Leavenworth Kansas. Their execution was delayed until the surrender of Germany to the Allies in order to avoid Germany from executing American prisoners in retribution. There are two books about this, “Extreme Justice” by Vince Green is a novel by Vince Green written in 1995 and “The Killing of Corporal Kunze” is a non-fiction book published in 1981 by Wilma Parnell. Both book are on Amazon for under a dollar plus three times that shipping.

And there were a few graves of Italian POW’s.

And I love serendipity. As Logan and I were leaving the cemetery I saw this old barn on the outskirts of the Fort and I so I drove up and took a picture of it. Later that night I posted it on a Facebook Group “Forgotten Oklahoma” as kind of an open ended post. Turns out that several people knew all about it. It was Mule Barn Number Three and was heavily damaged in the last tornado that came through the area in 2013. Further, the US Cavalry Association is raising money to restore the barn.

Courtesy of the US Embassy of New Delhi of all places on Flickr (click on photo for full license info). Trying to find third party photos to post without running afoul of copyright matters is a devil.

Fort Reno bred at least one famous horse. Black Jack, the riderless horse in John F. Kennedy’s funeral procession was foaled at Fort Reno. Black Jack did that funeral gig and those of Franklin Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon B. Johnson and thousands of other funerals during his 24 year career. He was laid to rest with full military honors in 1976 and is buried on the parade ground of Fort Myers.

The next little tidbit of information that I am trying to verify is that the sire of the famous Depression era racehorse Seabiscuit spent time at Fort Reno. The horse’s name is Hard Tack. The US Cavalry Association headquartered at the Fort has a photograph of him at the base. I am still trying to find out more about that.

Anyways, what I thought was just an old barn turned out to be quite historic. I love that kind of stuff.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday

YogisDen.us

Welcome to my world